A Tough Hand
by Rock114
Summary: Nick, Luke, and Sarah find themselves trapped by walkers in the trailer park after escaping Carver's community. Surrounded and with no way out, someone needs to get the walkers off their back if any of them want to survive to see the dawn. Rated T for violence and swearing.
1. Chapter 1

The burning in his shoulder wouldn't abate. Nick could practically feel the tiny piece of lead stuck in there when ever he attempted to move his arm. As it was, he could barely even do that. Well, he could, but it hurt a hell of a lot. He let the limb swing mostly useless by his side since escaping from the herd

"Nick, man, we gotta go now. You ready?"

He winced, again feeling the bullet grind against bone in his shoulder as he finished pulling himself through the gap in the trailer park fence. "Jesus fuck...yeah, man," Nick gasped as Luke peered to the distant trailer park. "I'm good. Just don't ask me to help you move anytime soon, 'kay?"

"Nick, you idiot," Luke chuckled. His friend turned around, face hardening at the sight of his friend's bloody shoulder. "You, uh… you're sure you're alright?"

Blood seeped between Nick's fingers as he clasped his hand over the wound and pushed down a howl of agony that threatened to rise up. "Yeah man, I'm fine." It was a lie. Just like the last time he'd said he was okay. And the time before that. His arm was slowly deadening as blood leaked out of it, mixing with the disgusting gore he'd coated himself in hours earlier. At this rate he'd lose it. Hell, at this rate he'd be dead by nightfall. Luke was no doctor, and neither was anyone else in the group. He remembered seeing Carlos go down in the herd. And Sarah's scream… he couldn't forget that. He'd been there, too. When his mother was bitten and he had to make sure she didn't turn, Nick had felt like screaming. Screaming loud and long, pushing all of the air out of him until he couldn't yell anymore, then just wait to die next to her cooling corpse.

But he never had that opportunity. Uncle Pete had been there. The closest thing to an actual father he'd ever had. And Pete raised him to be tough. So he kept it all inside. Instead of yelling or crying or wandering off into the woods and waiting for the lurkers to get him he put on a stony face and walked away from that shallow grave in the woods while Pete looked on.

He envied Sarah. At least she got to let it all out.

Luke's machete emitted a soft rasp against the leather of its sheath as he drew his weapon. With shaking hands, Nick fumbled for his own weapon, a pistol he had used in the escape from Carver's camp.

"DAD?! Is that you?" The silence shattered as the two men turned to see Sarah rushing toward them, arms outstretched to embrace Luke in a hug. The young girl's arms wrapped tightly around Luke as she sobbed into his shirt. "Dad, I thought that you were… you're back!"

"Sarah, get off of me!" Luke hissed. "I ain't Carlos, and you have to _shut up._ They're gonna hear us!"

A low, droning moan reverberated through the park, rattling the flimsy trailers as it grew in intensity. From the darkest corners of the park, from within and without the trailers, rose a legion of death cloaked in the shadows of the pre-light morning. "Fuck, too late!" Nick swore. "Jesus, there's dozens of'em!"

Sarah's eyes glistened with tears as she looked up at Luke for the first time. The smile on her face faded as the creeping truth made its way through her mind, and she stammered out a hauntingly dejected realization. "Y-you're not...m-m-my Dad…"

"Luke, get her! Move!"

Nick could hear Luke grunting as he slashed cleanly through a walker's neck, sending its head tumbling away from its body. "Move where?!" Luke lunged, shoving the tip of his machete through a walker's eye as the throng of undead bodies closed around them. "The only way out of here is the gap in the fence, and we're cut off!"

_Trapped_. The word struck Nick like lightning. They were trapped. Dozens of walkers encircled them. Sarah was a mess, Nick was shot, and Luke was still beaten to shit. And they had nowhere to run.

Unless…

"Luke, get her into that trailer. I've got a plan."

Sarah clung to Luke with white knuckled hands, breathing heavily and quickly as Luke tried to keep himself between the girl and the walkers. He sliced again with an upward cut that severed the arms of a lurker that drew too close then sent it back toward the rest of the horde with a mighty kick. His left arm was drawn around Sarah as he backed the two of them away and toward the trailer Nick had pointed out, throwing a frenzy of slashes, parrys, and stabs toward the walking corpses that closed within range until he had backed up to the steps.

Nick sprinted over as Luke shoved the trailer's door open and ushered Sarah, still sobbing, inside. "Okay, she's in the trailer," Luke shouted. "What next?"

"Next, you get in."

Puzzled, Luke tore his eyes from the advancing horde and locked them onto Nick. "What?"

"You heard me, get in!"

"What about you?" Luke asked.

"There's too many of'em, man. Someone's gotta lead them away or you're done for."

"You mean 'we're' done for, right?"

Nick turned away. "Yeah, sure. Now get inside."

"Not without you. Nick, this ain't the time to give up, we need you."

Nick checked his pistol. "Get inside. I'll be fine."

"Fine?! Is this your big plan, run off and die? Some fuckin' plan."

"I'll be back. I'll just draw them away from you and Sarah, then I'll come back with help. Now get the hell inside!"

Luke saw the lie on Nick's face as plain as if he'd said it aloud. "No! You're comin' in with me." He grabbed Nick's good arm but Nick jerked it away. Luke reeled backward as Nick, teeth clenched in pain, clutched at Luke's shirt with both hands and shoved him inside.

Luke picked himself off the floor just as the door slammed shut. Sarah was huddled in the corner of the trailer's main room as he threw himself at the door and fumbled fruitlessly with the lock.

"NICK! GET THE FUCK IN HERE!"

From the other side of the door Nick gave a sad shrug. "I'll be fine, man."

"No, you won't!"

"Someone has to do this. Besides, you'll be alright." Nick looked back over his shoulder at the horde for a moment before turning back. "You can move on. Not like me. You won't let this drag you down."

The lock was stuck. Luke twisted it furiously but it refused to yield. He tugged at the door, trying to rip it open as he saw Nick descend the steps through the door's window. Then he gave up.

He smashed his fist against the door. "Nick!"

His friend didn't respond.

He slammed against the door with his full body weight. "NICK!"

No answer.

In the corner Sarah continued to cry for Carlos while Luke's legs gave out. He fell against the door and slid down the side until he was sitting down with his back propped against it and his head in his hands. "Goddamnit Nick," he sniveled. "You better get back soon…"


	2. Chapter 2

The bullet in his shoulder continued to grind against the bone. Throwing Luke inside with both hands stung, but there was no other way he could have done it. If Luke had had his way then they'd all be going together, but Nick couldn't let that happen. Sarah couldn't make it through all of these lurkers. Her only chance was to stay put. And she couldn't stay alone, so someone had to be with her.

It was just logical. Luke was beaten to shit, but Nick had been shot. He was bleeding out, no doubt about that, and if the worst came to pass and he was alone with Sarah…

No. He wouldn't get anyone else killed. He was done fucking up.

_Okay, you assholes,_ he thought to himself as the walkers closed in, _Just follow me._

He fired a round into the horde. "Yeah, you heard that! C'mon, this way!" He dove through a gap between two trailers over to his left and kept firing the gun as he squeezed through the narrow space. The bulk of the group surged toward him. "This way, motherfuckers! That's right, over here!" _Fuck me, it's working._ Realizing that the undead were drawing closer to him all around he hurried himself through, emerging from the constricting space between the trailers and into the open near the trailer park's fence and the opening.

He fired into the air twice more. "I said _this way_ you stupid shits!" His heart slammed against his chest as he spun to make his way through the gap in the fence, amazed that he had somehow come through without a scratch when his heart skipped a beat. Then another.

They were drifting back toward Luke and Sarah.

Through the tinning group of them he glimpsed the gap in the fence. Sarah's howling was drawing the walkers away from him. He had a clean shot at escaping. At the cost of his friends' lives.

He checked his watch. He wasn't concerned with the time though. He was thinking to himself.

_What would Pete do?_

That was an easy question. Nick took a deep breath and prepared himself.

"Motherfuckers!" Nick began to unload into the crowd. He picked his shots carefully. With each shot he saw a lurker go down, and each time his gun thundered he saw more of their decayed faces turn away from Luke and Sarah's trailer. "You want me! Not them! Come on!" He fired again and again. "Over here! That's right, fuck you, I'm right here!"

Finally his weapon made a clicking noise as they bore down on him, only feet away. His bullets were spent.

And so was he. But he wouldn't stop trying.

Nick jumped to the left, trying to get away from the horde and to the gap in the fence but he felt several sets of cold fingers latch onto his leg and pull him down.

The teeth cleaved through his flesh all over as half a dozen of them tore into him. Everything was on fire as he punched, kicked, and shoved his way out from under them. Everything became a blur. He grabbed something solid, metal, and swung. Swung over and over again from under the lurkers as they tried to keep him down. Blood flew, the sickening _whacks_ of his pipe against their skulls sand through the morning air as he tried to pull himself out from under them. Jagged bolts of pain shot through him each time he felt the lurkers bite into him, but he didn't stop swinging. He isolated the agony of his wounds in his mind and pushed it away, ignoring the pain like Pete had taught him to when he was young. Clenching his teeth, he kept swinging even as an unnatural coolness settled in his bones. The weighty pipe in his grasp was the only other thing he could feel as he gave a last heavy swing and crushed the skull of the final walker in the group that had caught him.

Nick pulled himself out from under the pile of now truly dead corpses, leaving dark stains in the dirt as his eyes located the gap in the fence he and Luke had crawled through. His legs were useless now. As dead as the walkers that had pulled him down. He could feel the liquid heat of the pain pour back into him moment by moment as he waited for the rest of them to catch up to him.

But they didn't. They were dispersing. Some, the closest to his friends, drifted back toward the trailer, but most of them… most of them began to wander off.

They were leaving. Settling back into trailers or the corners of the park. _I guess Luke managed to calm Sarah, least a little… _

He did it. They were safe. At least for the moment.

"Help…" he groaned. ""Gotta find… help… for Sarah… Luke…"

Then the pain washed over him like a hurricane. It was in every joint, every pore of his being. He could feel the bites now, so many of them, all over, the sickness working its way into his system and through his body like a spindly tendril of evil wrapped around his insides.

But he couldn't stop now. He couldn't stand either, but he said he'd get help for them.

So he crawled. The gap in the fence was just ahead. His vision started to go black but he kept the darkness at bay as he clawed his way through the dirt.

_Almost… there…_

He was cold. And tired. He wanted to sleep.

_No… sleeping… have to find… others…_

His body begged him to stop. A voice in the back of his mind told him it was okay to give up, but he tried not to listen.

_Get a move on, you lazy asshole,_ he cursed at himself. _Go on, you're burnin' daylight. Gotta move faster… gotta find help..._

He couldn't feel the bullet in his shoulder anymore. The darkness at the edge of his vision tightened its hold on him.

_Fuck, this hurts… just a little further…_ The smooth metal links of the fence were in his hands now.

_Is this how it felt for you, Pete? _He couldn't be at Pete's side when his uncle died. He couldn't help but wonder what that old man would have thought of this, thought of him. _Would you be proud, Uncle Pete? Or would you just shake your head like you always did? Christ, I can't feel anything…_

His arm was snagged. With a feeble tug he tried to pull it off the fence but it wouldn't budge. He dragged himself closer with the last of his strength. He sagged before he could try to free his arm again as he expended the last of his energy. His body was numb. The feeling had left him as lay there in the fence, shredded and bleeding out the last of his life.

_You know… this isn't the worst place._ He was still so tired. His eyelids drooped and everything went black.

_I'll just… rest… yeah… I'll keep going… when I… wake up…_

A gruff and hauntingly familiar voice echoed up from within the endless chasm that he could see beckoning to him in his mind. The words were just as biting and disappointed as they had been at the side of that river not so long ago, the final words his uncle had ever said to him.

"_You gotta grow up, son."_

The last of his breath left his body and he began to drift away. With one final, fleeting thought on his mind he took his final steps into the unknown.

_I tried... Uncle Pete… I... tried…_


End file.
